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Abbott vows quick action on asylum

2013 Sep 09

Australia's PM-elect Tony Abbott says his top priorities in office are to scrap the carbon tax and to stop asylum-seekers arriving by boat.

The main election issues were how to tackle an expected economic slowdown, whether to keep the Labor-introduced carbon tax, and how to reduce the number of migrants arriving from Asia by boat.

"Scrapping the carbon tax and stopping the boats are the two most urgent priorities," Mr Abbott said.

"Obviously, we will swiftly implement Operation Sovereign Borders and one component is a much more active programme of intercepting vessels and where possible turning them around - rather than escorting them to Christmas Island."(BBC)

The Centre for Human Rights and Research (CHR) Sri Lanka, www.chrsrilanka.com the sister organization of Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) www.caffe.lk, was established in 2010 in a bid to address the growing human rights concerns in the country and to educate the people about issues which have been neglected by the main stream media or civil society groups for various reasons. In addition to our continuous work with CSOs and human rights activism, in the past four years we have studied, spoken about and published greatly on Freedom of Information, Academic Freedom, and the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).